Socialized Illiterates?

Consider this salient into the daycare/preschool *socialization justification*:

In 1950 the average vocabulary of a child entering first grade was 4000 words. By 1990 this figure had dropped to 1000 words. Why? Because children are not read to and do not have very much quality interaction with their parents. Plus they do not pick up new words at play with their peers. And it is hard for two tired, working parents or a single parent to do much with their children at the end of the day. Many kids are simply placed in front of the TV while mom and/or dad get supper ready.

I don't know about y'all...

But I'd most certainly take a quadrupled vocabulary and keep my toddlers mainly at home if the daycare application came with such an explicit disclaimer!

In fact that's what we did here at the Nut household.

Did y'all see the staggering book list I posted of my 6 year-old son on HomeschoolDad?

Found! - The Most Moronic Religion

How dumb do you have to be to admit there are other *gods* and yet not pay them homage!!!

May they hurl lightning bolts at your stupid @ss!

For Would-Be Etymologists

Dictionary.com has started blogging.

See the Hot Word Blog if you find the origin of words interesting as its lessons are somewhat spunkier than reading straight through a etymological dictionary.

Even though I do in fact joyously indulge in the latter....I've personally found the Hot Word Blog a decent read.

I'm going to rerun one of my favorite Will Durant quotes.  From the Age of Faith:

By adding French and Latin to its German base, English could triply express any one of a thousand ideas (kingly, royal, regal; twofold, double, duplex; daily, journal, diurnal,...); to this it owes its wealth of discriminating synonyms and verbal nuances. He who should know the history of words would know all history.

Thoughts On 'Old Bags'

Think about this:

When one uses the expression *my old man*...

They are usually referencing their father.

Okay.

But when one uses the expression *my old lady*...

That is an idiomatic referencing of their wife.

So why the generational discrepancy?

Is the conflation of wives and mothers Oedipal or something?

Or is it a patriarchal, chauvinistic statement that in some way, wives age faster than husbands - as in dog-years or something?

Vocab Lessons - Tip

My mother told me decades ago that *tip* meant:

To
Insure
Prompt
Service

Apparently, according to snopes.com, that is simply not true.

The term has been in use for a few hundred years.

Meanwhile, most interestingly, there are ZERO known acronyms from before the year 1900!

Vocab Lessons - Help Found!

So today I finished reading an abridged, illustrated version of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Kidnapped to my 5.15 year old son.

We tackled is as we always do, jumping right up to the computer after each few chapters to look up any found object of curiosity or ignorance.

Despite there being a picture of a *blunderbuss* right there in the book, the Prince wanted to google it.

And lo and behold we found a great new etymological resource!



I, in the interests of meticulous research, checked out a couple other videos of hers. Funny, accurate, well-spoken, and a real pleasure to learn from....what more could a student ask for?

So for a brief second I wondered whether or not s*xing up educational material might be efficacious on a large scale.

Then all I could think of was Pamela Smart.

And not for nothin'....but, *classic* or not, that Kidnapped book stunk!

Though my son thoroughly enjoyed it.

Vocab Lessons - Nebbish

I had never heard this *word of the day* before it hit my inbox from dictionary.com.

But I have heard the term *nebsh*t* many times!

The latter just HAS TO BE a bastardization of the former, no?

The Urban Dictionary doesn't say much - though it links my version of the epithet to the Pittsburgh area. Interesting.

I'll bet there are far more PEJORATIVE terms in our language than, well, flattering ones.

And that presumption is handy for justifying the massive disproportion in my lexicon.

The Extro-Inverted....Marginalizing Themselves

American Idol finalist Adam Lambert, is fresh off an *obscene* performance that got his next televised gig cancelled. From the NYPost:

"We had this great dance number totally staged. It's a sexy song about seduction and power and I was just doing the lyrics justice," he told Rolling Stone. "My intention was not to try and create a controversy. But if a controversy ensues, then so be it."

After the performance, a pleased Lambert hit the Twittersphere to say, "All hail freedom of expression and artistic integrity."

It's all just the latest in Lambert's attempts at titillating audiences by pushing boundaries, something that the singer has been keen to do since coming out as gay after "American Idol" ended in the spring.

Lambert has yet to comment about the way his performance was edited, but he did tell the Los Angeles Times -- before the West Coast broadcast aired -- "If it's going to be edited, then, in a way, that's discrimination. I don't mean to get political, but Madonna, Britney [Spears] and Christina [Aguilera] weren't edited."

He went on to add, "It's a shame. Female entertainers have been risqué for years.

"Honestly, there's a huge double standard....It's 2009, it's time to take more risks. It's about entertainment. People want to be surprised. It's too bad that people are so scared."

Now you can read about and actually watch the performance on that link above (West Coast Tom!).

Obviously this Lambert guy is a little too much for mainstream, heterophile America. He started his public opinion descent on American Idol, going from merely a little flamboyant to in-your-face, loud, and unapologetic - and it cost him the contest to a much inferior Chris Allen.

It's hard to imagine any big sponsors ever getting *behind* Lambert given his persona now. It's one thing for a pop singer to be a full-blown deviant in the privacy of their own home, e.g. Michael Jackson,....

I don't really have anything else to say in this post - which was really just a ruse to introduce my neologism - *extro-inverted*.

Or should we call Adam *extra-extro-inverted*?

[There's always a notable Moron in these stories, check out his proud mother.]

UPDATE - Another cancellation for this knucklehead.

Vocab Lessons - "Aliterate"

I can't believe I never came across this great word before today!

And I'll bet it's probably more applicable in our society than *illiterate* - the inability to read.

For years now I have used the term *econo-illiterate* on this blog and elsewhere to describe those not fluent in the theory of economics.

Now, with today's new word in my arsenal, I can promulgate a new sub-population - the *econo-aliterates*.

These are the jerks who well understand the subtleties of free trade, regulation, etc....yet nonetheless say and do some real Moronic things.

The best econo-aliterate example I can think of at the moment?

It just has to be Harvard's own Greg Mankiw!

For my master Mankiw link - click here.

Vocab Lessons - "Titivate"

Words are indeed weapons especially for an argumentative geek like myself!

I'm the type of guy who gets his jollies by calling another's argument offal and having them retort that I'm an illiterate who can't spell!

Perhaps I'll start a new feature on this blog dedicated solely to interesting words, etymology, sesquipedalia, and whatnot.

For example, today's word titivate....it doesn't mean what you probably thought it did.



Or does it?

Bun-Dusters And Their Carbon Footprint

Revealed: the environmental impact of Google searches

Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea, according to new research.

And, as we all know boiling teapots foment hurricanes and direct them toward minority-laden cities!

One grand irony, as pointed out by a commenter on that ridiculous article, is that eco-saint Al Gore invented the globe-scorching internet.

Back to tea...

From one of my new books:

Bun-duster - An effete male who likes to go to teas and other similar mild social occasions.

What a great epithet! I am always excited to add weapons to my arsenal.

This is a word I needed last year to describe my metrosexual brother - whose carbon footprint will now have to be recalculated.